Louis Comfort Tiffany - An American Treasure

The Louis Comfort Tiffany 41-cent commemorative stamp went on sale this past week.

Shown here, it features an image of a leaded Favrile-glass window designed by Tiffany for a Brooklyn cemetery mausoleum. Titled Magnolias and Irises and dating to around 1908, it was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1981 by an anonymous donor.

According to a USPS news release, the stamp art is considered a "detail" of the window, since the original photograph, selected by art director Derry Noyes, had to be very slightly cropped on all four sides to fit the stamp format.

The Tiffany stamp is the seventh in the U.S. Postal Service American Treasures series. The series was inaugurated in 2001 with the Amish Quilts stamp pane. It showcases beautiful works of American fine art and crafts. The 2002, 2003 and 2004 issuances featured artwork by John James Audubon, Mary Cassatt and Martin Johnson Heade respectively. The theme returned to textiles with the issuance of the New Mexico Rio Grande Blankets stamp booklet in 2005 and the Quilts of Gee's Bend booklet in 2006.

For more on Louis Comfort Tiffany, click here.